[Maryann Corbett]

I'm trying something new for me: couplets that are rhymed but not metered. My model for this exercise is an A.E. Stallings poem, "Written on the eve of my 20th high school reunion, which I was not able to attend. I remember another such piece by Jehanne Dubrow, in Subtropics I think, but I haven't hunted it up this morning.

I'm finding that the exercise raises all sorts of questions. The first is, Can we do this sort of thing and get a serious result, or does the echo of Ogden Nash doom the poem to lightweightness? Or will feminine rhymes be the death of its seriousness?

Another question is how one ensures that the unmatched couplets don't merely look like failed meter. I think I know the answer to this one: the elements of the pairs have to be very different in length.

It looks as though the looseness of the structure makes it possible for the poem to tolerate more prosey language than other poems might take. Do you agree?

What other examples of rhymed but unmetered work have you found and enjoyed?